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Monster High (cartoon)
Among the promotional material Mattel produces to bring attention to the Monster High dolls, the most prominent product is the Monster High cartoon series. Released as a mix of many webisodes of a few minutes long and a small amount of TV specials of around an hour, the cartoon is the primary medium through which new characters and accessories are brought to the audience's attention. The Flash-animated material was produced by W!LDBRAIN during 2010-2012 and is produced by Six Point Harness since 2013, though Top Drawn Animation has been continuously hired by both companies for supportive work. Meanwhile, the CGI-animated material is produced by Nerd Corps Entertainment. Sound for the entire series is done by Salami Studios. The cartoon is currently working through Volume 5. Mattel releases a new webisode weekly as long as an arc is running via the ''Monster High'' YouTube channel and the video portion of the ''Monster High'' website. The wait between arcs is not predictable at the moment. Volume 1 Between May 05th and July 30th of 2010, Mattel released 15 webisodes featuring the students, teachers and staff of Monster High. This was followed by a 3-month hiatus until October 29th, starting which another 12 webisodes were released until January 20, 2011. The webisodes of Volume 1 are 1:47 minutes long, good for a little less than 1:30 minutes worth of actual webisode. There is almost no continuity between the webisodes and all rely on the "gag-per-webisode" format. The Volume 1-associated TV special "New Ghoul @ School", which details Frankie Stein's first days at Monster High, functions as an alternative version of the webisodes' story. Volume 2 Volume 2 was released between February 08th and November 17th of 2011. Its formula is drastically different from Volume 1's. Instead of only 1:47 minutes, Volume 2's webisodes take 3:32 minutes, almost twice as much. Moreso, the Volume 2 webisodes are heavy on continuity, featuring multiple storylines at once that span multiple webisodes. The TV special "Fright On!" was released during Volume 2's run and takes place between Volume 2 and Volume 3. Volume 2 also saw the release of a special webisode to promote the Kind Campaign, though it isn't marked as Volume 2 and has to take place after "Fright On!". Volume 3 Preceded by three promotional webisode releases in October and November, the first of the regular Volume 3 webisodes was released on the Monster High channel and site on December 8, 2011. The end of Volume 3 is not any easier to define; the webisodes of the regular schedule stopped on December 10, 2013, but three final Volume 3 webisodes were released on the "Frights, Camera, Action!" DVD on March 25, 2014. On top of that, the current situation is that six Volume 3 webisodes have only been released on DVD and not in the regular lineup, which they are still expected to do eventually. This means that Volume 3 can be considered to still be ongoing. All the Volume 3 webisodes are 2:31 minutes long, less than the length of Volume 2's webisodes, and mark a return to the "gag-per-webisode" format. There is still a sense of continuity a la Volume 2, but less so. Notably, Volume 3 introduced clip shows, which did help establish a sense of continuity. Nine TV specials belong to Volume 3, but none of them has a distinguishable position relative to the webisodes. Special * Fashion Emergency * Super Fan * Zom-Beach Party * Department of Monster Vehicles * Royal Pest Sitter * Cookie Creeper * Crime Scream Investigation * Games Ghouls Play * Monster-morphoseas Regular Volume 4 On November 21, five Volume 4 webisodes were uploaded on YouTube, but they were only viewable to people who had the URL. On November 27, the webisodes showed up in the Monster High account's upload list. As such, Volume 4, like Volume 3, started while the previous volume had yet to reach its end. Though little can be said about the nature of Volume 4 just yet, it notably contains one webisode duo that together make one longer webisode, suggesting a light return to Volume 2's sense of continuity. Volume 4's first TV special is set for release in Fall 2014. Volume 5 On October 2, a Volume 5 webisode was uploaded onto YouTube. Much like Volume 4, Volume 5 seems to have started before the previous volume has come to its end. Notable changes in Volume 5 so far are an increased running time, and a slight improvement in the animation itself, such as more varied facial expressions, and the exterior of Monster High's main building changing to look more like the school as seen in the movie specials. Other In addition to the storyline webisodes, there have also been two special webisodes released in honor of Monster High's partnership with the Kind Campaign in 2011 and WeStopHate in 2012. * Kind: The Shockumentary * We Stop Hate Category:Cartoon